


At the Beginning

by orphan_account



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22724464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: We were strangers, starting out on a journeyUnexpected, what you did to my heart
Relationships: Evan Bates/Madison Chock
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	At the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> There aren't enough stories about this adorable couple, and I've been working on this one for a while. I have some other drafts which I might publish later. If you have any song suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

_ We were strangers, starting out on a journey _

_ Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through _

Madison Chock was thirteen when her family packed up their lives and moved from California to Michigan to pursue her Olympic dreams. Madi was terrified of everything when she got there, the Russian coaches, the new school, and the frigid weather. It was intimidating to skate with so many talented ice dancers. How could she keep up?

At her first competition, Madi was nervous and pacing back and forth in the warm-up area. Then, to her surprise, a tall boy with curly blond hair came up to her and said that everything would be okay. It felt amazing that someone noticed how she was struggling, and was willing to reach out. She smiled at him and said, “What’s your name? I’m Madison.”

“I’m Evan. You’re going to be just fine, everyone’s nervous for their first competition,” he said, with a goofy grin.

Madi chuckled a little, and she felt herself relax. Maybe this would all be okay.

Madi wasn’t perfect in her routine. She didn’t fall, but she stumbled through some steps. She didn’t win the competition, but she saw Evan standing in the crowd, giving her a thumbs up, and smiling back at her. For the first time, Madi thought that maybe the move was going to work out.

_ Now here we are, I'm suddenly standing _

_ At the beginning with you _

Twenty years later, Madison Chock felt like she had done it all. She had been an Olympian, a US champion, and everything that she had given up when she left California had been so worth it. 

“We’re ready to retire,” Evan said to the cameras. 

Madi stood next to him with a smile on her face as she continued, “We’re really happy and satisfied with everything that we have done in our careers, and we are ready for the next chapter in our lives.”

It was the end of part one, but as Madi looked over at Evan, and glimpsed the ring on her finger, she smiled brighter, because she knew it was the start of something even better. 

_ No one told me I was going to find you _

_ Unexpected, what you did to my heart _

“Don’t date your partner,” everyone said. All the coaches, judges, parents, and competitors repeated those words over and over again. Heck, Evan himself had given that advice to younger skaters without even thinking about it. It made sense, if things didn’t work out, your personal and professional life would tank. He had seen partnerships that ignored that golden rule break up and have to start from scratch with new partners, and he was determined not to go done that forsaken path. 

It wasn’t hard for him to follow the golden rule. He and Emily had been skating together since they were so young that it was weird for him to think of her like that. He didn’t understand why it was so difficult for other partnerships to follow that rule. It was just skating, what was so special?

When he started skating with Madi, he understood. 

_ When I lost hope, you were there to remind me _

_ This is the start _

The 2010-2011 season had been nothing like Evan had wanted. He had been on top of the world when he and Emily were selected to go to Vancouver in 2010. But then there was a freak accident, the blade hit his ankle, and he was off the ice. When spring came and Evan could finally get back on the ice, nothing was the same. Emily snapped at him in practice when he wiped out on twizzles, and he snapped at Emily when she entered the lift improperly and they both fell on the ice. By June, both of them were out of patience, and they agreed to end their partnership.

Evan wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He was very out of practice after being off the ice for so long, and he wasn’t sure if he could find a good partner. He loved skating, but maybe the injury was a way that the universe told him to stop. After all, his dream had been the Olympics, and he had already gotten there. The next step up would be an Olympic or Worlds medal, and was that really realistic? Did he want to devote himself to that for another four or eight, or however many years? He was also in college, it would be easy to drop skating, focus on college, and be a normal human for the first time in his life. 

Evan skated alone for a couple weeks, thinking about what to do. He wasn’t the only one who needed a new partner at his rink. Madison Chock had also been skating alone when her partner retired. The first, and only, tryout Evan got was with Madi. Finally, Marina and Igor decided to let Madi and Evan have a try. Evan knew that they weren’t expecting it to work out too well, and they may not have been hoping for it either. After all, Evan was a foot taller than Madi, and they didn’t compliment each other’s physical appearances or style on the ice. Madi was a performer, while Evan was more of a technician. 

When Evan grabbed Madi’s hand and they stepped on the ice, Evan had never felt more right. Even though she kicked his shins on accident when they got too close in hold, and Evan felt awkward when he adjusted his hold to accomodate for her height, he knew that this was what he wanted. If Madi would skate with him, he would gladly continue his career for however long she would have him. 

When Madi told him that she wanted to be partners with him, any thoughts of early retirement went out the window, and Evan allowed himself to dream again. With Madi, maybe they could be truly on top.

_ And life is a road that I wanna keep going _

_ Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing _

_ Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey _

_ I'll be there when the world stops turning _

_ I'll be there when the storm is through _

_ In the end I wanna be standing _

_ At the beginning with you _

When they first met, Evan and Madi would have never predicted how closely their lives would be linked. Evan thought that she was a pretty and bubbly girl, and Madi thought that he had the best jokes. Afterwards, they saw each other from time to time, and enjoyed each meeting like the first. 

When they were teenagers, Evan asked Madi on a date for her sixteenth birthday. It was a fun day of flirting and teasing. They were young and naive, and there were no risks to going out. They weren’t skating partners and they trained at different rinks. There were a few dates after, but they drifted apart due to distance. It didn’t change their dynamic when they saw each other at competitions. 

When they started training at the same rink, they thought nothing of it. There were a lot of skaters in Canton, and they had always been friends. Nothing would change about that. Besides, they both had significant others. 

When they first became skating partners, they became closer friends. Madi laughed at all of his jokes like she always did, and Evan continued to smile at Madi’s energy. They had fun through all of their practices, even when they had a rough day. Madi went home to her boyfriend every night, but Evan broke up with his girlfriend a few months after he started skating with Madi. He told himself that it just wouldn’t have worked out, he ignored the feeling in his heart that there was something else. 

When Evan realized that he loved her, he didn’t know what to do. More than anything, he wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t do that. She was in a serious relationship with someone else, and he would jeopardize their skating careers and their friendship. He wouldn’t break the golden rule, not when they had come so far. Madi was his best friend, who would he turn to if he lost their friendship? 

When Madi broke up with Deividas, Evan forced himself not to get his hopes up. Nothing had really changed. Madi was still his best friend and his skating partner. Keeping his heart locked up was easier than losing his closest confidant. Instead, he held her close and comforted her as she cried in his chest. 

Evan knew that he would never do it, but he thought a lot about confessing his love to Madi. He thought about big romantic gestures and cheesy gifts, but that wasn’t how it happened. When they were in Paris, recovering from a devastating competition, Evan poured out his heart. Everything that he felt and wanted to say for years came tumbling out without warning. All the sensible parts of his brain wanted him to stop talking, but it felt so good to get it all off his chest. When he finally finished, he was sure that he had ruined everything. Then, Madi held his hand and kissed him, and nothing and everything changed.

_ We were strangers, on a crazy adventure _

_ Never dreaming, how our dreams would come true _

Skating was the centerpiece of Madi’s life since her family uprooted their lives to Michigan. She had dreamed of the Olympics since she was a little girl, watching Michelle Kwan dazzle the ice on a box television. When training in California, it had always felt like a pipe dream, but as she climbed the ranks in Michigan, it became more realistic day by day. Then, suddenly, Greg retired, and she needed to start all over with a new partner.

Madi’s skating career with Evan was a whirlwind from start to finish. They climbed and fell and climbed again, overcoming injuries and setbacks of all kinds. They changed a lot as people from when they first teamed up in 2011. Through it all, they learned to become a better team.

They achieved everything they wanted in their skating careers, and through it all, they fell in love too. 

_ Now here we stand, unafraid of the future _

_ At the beginning with you _

Evan didn’t give a lot of thought to what he wanted after skating when he was still competing. There wasn’t a lot of time for considering it, and it was terrifying to think about what he would do with his life after such a significant part of it was over.

So as he filmed his retirement video, he wondered what his future would truly hold. What would he do now? He had enrolled in graduate school, and Madi had enrolled in college, but what about after that.

He turned to look at Madi as she started talking to the camera, and he smiled slightly. Whatever happened for the rest of their lives, they would go through it together. 

_ And life is a road that I wanna keep going _

_ Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing _

_ Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey _

_ I'll be there when the world stops turning _

_ I'll be there when the storm is through _

_ In the end I wanna be standing _

_ At the beginning with you _

No one can truly understand the lows of being a professional athlete without being one themselves. Evan had his fair share of injuries throughout his career, but none were quite so devastating as his injury at the end of 2010, when Emily’s blade sliced through his achilles tendon during practice. That injury was one of the turning points of his life. While he had sprains and tears before, nothing was as serious, and his personality changed afterwards. He wasn’t as naive or bright, he understood the dark side and stress of skating.

His partnership with Emily fell apart as a result, and if he didn’t skate with Madi, he wasn’t sure if he would have continued skating at all.

Over the next few years, they had more injury knocks. Evan’s back was a perpetual source of pain, and that was something no surgery could fix. He had been doing lifts since he was ten, and it was just the overuse which sometimes flared its ugly head. Madi had sprains and bruises on her legs, but every ice dancer did, and icing them was part of the daily routine.

In August 2017, Madi’s ankle became the primary problem. It hurt every time she got on the ice, but there wasn’t time. The Olympics were that season, and they couldn’t miss the whole reason they started their careers. Instead, Madi gritted her teeth, and they skated through the pain. They almost made it, until she reinjured her ankle during the warmup for the short dance in Pyeongchang. Somehow, they made it through that routine, but disaster struck the next day.

Madi and Evan had fallen in competitions before, and it had always brought them closer together through dealing with the devastation. After falling at the Grand Prix Final in 2016, they started dating because they realized how much they needed each other. The Olympics were the same, but magnified a hundred times. Everything they had been working on was stolen in an instant, and their dreams had crumpled to dust.

They spent days afterward thinking through the disaster, but it was always better, together.

Madi’s recovery from surgery was slow and arduous, but they fought through it together.

Then they came back, stronger and sharper than ever, because they had fought through it together. 

_ Knew there was somebody, somewhere _

_ Like me alone in the dark _

_ Now I know my dream will live on _

_ I've been waiting so long _

_ Nothing's gonna tear us apart _

Evan thought a lot about how he would propose to Madi after they got together. Even before he bought the ring, he imagined different scenarios of asking. Would she like a big public proposal? Should he propose on the ice? Would it be too cheesy to propose on Valentine’s Day, her birthday, or their anniversary?

In the end, the proposal was as impromptu as the way they got together. Madi found the ring in the back of Evan’s sock drawer while they were doing the laundry, and Evan mentally kicked himself for not finding a better hiding place. Evan decided to commit as she held the box in her hands, and got down on one knee in their bedroom. He wasn’t quite sure what he said, and Madi started crying and trembling before he finished.

It didn’t matter in the end, she said yes. 

_ Life is a road that I wanna keep going _

_ Love is a river, I wanna keep going on _

_ Starting out on a journey _

After retirement, Evan went to graduate school and Madi went to college. It wasn’t a change that they were used to, and it wasn’t an easy transition. Their stories were anything but normal in the education setting, and it didn’t feel right the way that skating did. Yet, they knew that it was the next step in their lives to transition as normal humans. It wasn’t easy, but it was easier with a partner. 

_ Life is a road that I wanna keep going _

_ Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing _

Evan reached out his hand, and Madi smiled before gripping it tightly. Then they stepped onto the dance floor at their wedding. The future could be anything they wanted to make of it, but they knew that they were in it together. 

_ In the end I want to be standing _

_ At the beginning with you... _


End file.
